HMRC Movement Welcome but Timetable Remains Daunting: The Chartered Institute of Taxation released an account of the recent announcement by HMRC that businesses will be able to continue to use spreadsheets for record keeping under the new quarterly reporting regime.

CIOT President Bill Dowell said in a report “Businesses and tax professionals across the UK will be poring over the announcement to see what they mean for them, and their clients and customers. The fact that there were more than 3,000 submissions to these consultations shows the level of concern about the proposals and the impact they will have.”

“The CIOT has suggested that HMRC substantially raise the short-term mandation threshold from the proposed £10,000 with a consensus forming around VAT threshold of £83,000.

The CIOT supported many of the suggestions in a report from the House of Commons Treasury Committee which called for a delay in the implementation of Making Tax Digital project and for more extensive piloting of the reforms. It also said that the proposed exemption threshold of £10,000 is far too low.

The results of a survey of members of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and the Association of Taxation Technicians in 2016 strengthened the two bodies’ concern that the timescale for implementing compulsory digital record keeping is unrealistic and must be delayed”